The Insanity That I Love
by JaylaHeart
Summary: Jewel week is a one of a kind soccer tournament for kids in school, and Nina gets to go to it with her new soccer team, but her new team always seems to have something up their sleeves... and Nina gets to watch the drama unfold. Rated for safety *Was "Soccer Drama 101"*
1. Day 1 Let's Go!

**A.N. I can't wait to get writing, but first I'd like to thanks to HOA LOVER, random girl, gest, stories254, Guest, and HopeSibunaFabinaForever for reviewing the filler chapter of this story, which was posted only to see if there would be a following, and there was! I really hope you enjoy, please alert the story right now, and read the end author note for this story's tradition for couples!**

**Nina's POV**

This was going to be an insane week. I get out of the car, kissing my Gran on the cheek, and as I walk up the long path leading to our team's stadium, I really start to get excited.

I like to play soccer over the summer, when I'm home. And I've been on the junior team for three years, and even though they're friends with each other all year, and I'm not, I'd found my place on the team. Unfortunately though, I have to move up to the senior team because of my age, even though everyone on the team is still a little bit older than me. I'm not complaining, I'm excited, I've just only known these people for a few weeks, which essentially means not at all.

Our junior and senior teams were going to this crazy event called Jewel week. It's an entire week of soccer tournaments just for kids in middle school and high school, and it's held at a college campus about ten hours away from our city.

As I walk into the stadium, I found about 50 people buzzing around the field, checking people in, piling bags to be packed, talking, screaming, hugging, and everything else. I've been here 40 seconds and I'm lost. I go over to the check in table, answer a few questions, and hand over my bags to be put on our bus.

I went to try to find one of my friends from the junior team, Alana, who's a year younger than me.

Alana's a girl on the shorter side with shoulder length glossy dirty blonde hair, and a very athletic figure.

She says hi to me, and goes back to talking to her best friend who's also moving up to the senior team, her name is Natasha. Natasha is a few inches taller than me, and a little bigger, but is by no means overweight. She's got a lovable, bubbly personality, and has brown hair that falls about mid-back. Since I've been on her team in the last few weeks, I've become better friends with her, almost more so than I have with Alana, who I've known for two years.

Just as it looks the coach is getting up on the podium to talk to all of us, I see Erin and Michael walk in. They're together, I think. I can't keep track of a bunch of people I've only known for a few weeks, but they are pretty cute, I must admit. He's tall with curly black hair, and she's average height, with hair that was definitely not a natural red. I've heard a few things like it's assumed they're together, but again, I'm not sure. I'm just going to go with, "They're together." It's easier.

"Attention!" A loud squeak caught my attention as the coach tried to turn on the microphone. We all covered our ears and made funny noises, just like always, and he turned around to figure out what was going on. I turned around and saw Dylan, who's on the senior team, but I've known him since last year's season, and he's two or three years older than me. Actually, everyone that I've mentioned other than Alana and Natasha are, but I'm trying to get to know the older kids better. The senior team is just divided like that. You're either a freshman or a senior, and I don't get that, but right now, I'm a freshman. The coach interrupted again, for real this time, and started giving us the typical "Pre trip speech."

"Hello teams! Please gather around!" Slowly, we did. "I don't know about you, but I'm psyched to go to Jewel week for the first time ever!" That earned some applause. "Okay, we're going to get on the buses out there in about 20 minutes! We'll arrive at about 6:00 in the morning, and we'll have most of tomorrow to explore the campus until opening ceremonies start! Just a few reminders now!"

He looked down at his clipboard, stuffed with about 40 different papers. He flipped through a few of them than looked back up.

"Okay, please remember to keep any phones with you at all times during the event in case of an emergency, but we're going to try to keep them off, right? Let's focus on being at the tournament?" There was a low mumble of un enthusiastic agreement.

"Also, if anyone finds this interesting, there are going to be campfire pits spread out around the campus every night, and we can all go out there and make smores!" That got an excited noise from the group, and Natasha whispered to me,

"And lots of talking." I smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Okay! That's all I got! We won't find out our game schedule until we're there, so let's go!" Everyone stood up and cheered, still hanging around, getting ready to leave. Just as I looked back at the door, Mariah walked in, one of the seniors on our team. One of the few I know pretty well. Her blonde hair was straightened, and she smiled at the lady at the check in table, and as she was about to go deal with her bags, Dylan, who had been standing on the opposite end of the field, ran over very quickly to go "Say hi" to her, smiling a giant grin, her doing the same back. They hugged, and talked for a few minutes. His grin was almost getting creepy big… Was I missing something here? I know they're not together but...

After another few minutes, one of the assistant coaches came to get us all onto the buses. I had to say goodbye to Alana, the junior and senior teams were going on separate buses. Natasha and I sat next to each other. And then, Mason came on the bus. He's kinda wild, probably standing about 5" 9', messy black hair, and he's always something a little bit insane. And, if you're asking, he's on the senior side of the team. He gets a seat by himself, but about 30 seconds later, Kim walks on the bus. She's actually probably about 5"1', but she's got long, blonde hair that's kind of frizzy, and very curly. She seems to be one of the few that has slipped between the boundaries and is part freshman- part senior. She's on the quiet side, but when she's with her friends, she's not quiet at all. And when she's with Mason, she's a different person entirely. Bold and silly, but most importantly, she smiles. I don't think they're together… yet. But I look around our bus as we get ready to leave, with everyone sitting together, or talking to someone, and I realize that I didn't know what was going to happen this week. No one did.

**A.N. Okay, if you love music as much as I do, there's a song for everything! So right now, I'm going to list off all of the couples that apply to the story, and it's your job to find a song that applies them as of the end of this chapter. I'll tell you who wins by which one fits the best! Thank you so much for reading!**

Mason/Kim:

Dylan/Mariah:

Erin/Michael:

**More are being added soon! ;)**

**~JaylaHeart**


	2. Day 2 Settling In

**A.N. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Including; guest, guest, and random girl. I'd love to see you guys get an account so I can talk to you guys! Thank you to "guest" for suggesting a song, I think, but unfortunately I didn't know what song that was, and I had some ideas, so here we go… but there isn't a whole lot of "Background" to work with at this point… What do you think?**

Mason/Kim: Accidentally In Love?

Dylan/Mariah: Call Me Maybe? (Even though they've already met)

Erin/Michael: Beautiful Soul?

I was abruptly woken by the squealing of the air through the brakes of the bus as we came to a stop. I had fallen asleep and when I groggily looked at my phone, it said 6:30 AM.— Way too early. I looked around and saw that most everyone on our bus was asleep or blankly staring at their phone. Our coach, Brian, who must have been awake for a half an hour or so already stood up and blew his whistle, making everyone on the bus jump about four feet into the air.

Then he screamed, "We're here!" I looked out the window and saw school buildings, a pool, lots of cars and buses, but almost no people because it was too early. Yep, we were at the campus. I stood up to stretch and as soon as I stood up, I realized that everyone else must have pressed the snooze button on waking up, because they were still passed out, either leaning on the side of the bus or the person next to them. I saw Mason, sitting up with his eyes open, but he still looked asleep. Kim, on the other hand, was slouched against him, still sound asleep. He had his arm around her, and they both looked very happy and peaceful. I'm wondering more and more what's going on there. I should just ask someone, really. _When I get a chance_, I told myself.

After another 10 minutes or so, we were all off the bus and standing in a mob on the sidewalk, stretching. The kids on the junior bus slowly started coming out as well. The coach had gone into an office building while we got our bags off the bus, and he came back out a few minutes later with a big stack of papers. Still trying to be a little bit quiet, he motioned for all of us to gather around.

"Okay! Here's our schedule!" He said, trying to not make his deep voice echo around the little plaza. "Today is our free day to explore and get familiar with the campus, aside from a warm up game on field 6C in a few hours. Opening ceremonies are tonight at 6:30." Everyone, despite the fact that we were still groggy, got a little excited by that information. "And tomorrow evening," He said, letting himself get a little louder. "Our first game at Jewel week is at 7:30!" We all gave off a cheer, and Alana, who I had been standing next to, looked at me, and we hugged excitedly, squealing a little bit. Coach Brian continued, "So let's get to our dorms, and get exploring." We all looked at him with a twisted face. Mason was the first to comment,

"It's 7:00 in the morning."

Coach Brian turned around abruptly. "That's right. Thank you Mason." We couldn't help but giggle. "How's this? Let's get to our dorms, relax, take our time, and _then _go explore." The team giggled quietly and agreed.

We got to our dorms, and eventually got settled. Natasha, Alana, Bailey, and me all room together. I don't know Bailey very well, but she's a great person to have on our team, so I was happy to share a room with her, I guess. I went over to the room of another girl on the senior team, Leah, and asked her when we were getting breakfast. She told me that the campus was providing meals on a large field, and we were heading there in 15 minutes. That was good information to know, but really, it was just my way of getting involved, staying in the loop. That was important. I was determined to find my place on the team.

We all went to have breakfast, which tasted incredible, mostly because we were all starved, but it was almost more fun to all lie around the field with our eggs and toast and talk. I was actually starting to enjoy being able to rotate between the junior and senior team.

"Field 6C? Where in this twisted campus is that?" I wondered to myself. We'd had enough problems finding our dorms earlier. I had officially just decided to follow the crowd, it was easier. It was my first game ever at Jewel week, even if it wasn't being judged. It was incredible. My blonde hair was tied back, and I was in my uniform, ready to go. I didn't even feel like Nina anymore. Nina resides in England. I'm different here, and I love it.

I turn around to see Erin and Michael walking together near the back of the pack. They're both smiling. Then I look down and see that they're holding hands, and even though I had decided to keep quiet about it, I had officially decided that they were together, for lack of a better explanation. We stopped at the entrance to the field while Coach Brian signed some papers attached to the front gate to sign in for our warm up game. I turned around to ask Alana a question, but just as I was about to speak, I found myself looking a little bit farther back to see Erin and Michael, now stopped, standing like the rest of us. Michael put his arm around her, reached over and kissed her for a few tender seconds. One by one, we turned around to see, squealing a little bit. Coach Brian either didn't notice, or chose to ignore it, because he motioned for us to all go onto the field. They _looked _pretty happy together, at least for the time being.

"Okay! Senior team, on the bleachers please! Michael, could you help me with the balls with the junior team's game?" I don't know him, or anyone on the team very well, but he's never asked anyone to help with balls before. So he _had _seen Erin and Michael. I laughed to myself.

I guess coach really wanted us in great shape for tomorrow, because he had us doing drill after drill, using the entire two hours we had the field for. At least he was forced to split the time for the teams.

We were doing goal kicks now. I was done, collapsed on the bleachers. There were about five of them left, working like mad, but exhausted like the rest of us. Dylan was sitting on the edge of the first row of the bleachers, and I waited anxiously a few rows back. If Mariah, who was next, got one more goal, she would have been the MVP for this challenge. It was either her to win, or Eric, from the senior team, and, much to Eric's dismay, everyone was rooting on Mariah. It was just one of those fun things everyone decided to do to feel united and goofy. I was in favor.

She got it in! We all cheered frantically, Coach Brian rolling his eyes and making a note on his clipboard. He was forgetting that we were here to have fun, but two could play the game of ignorance, so we did. When Mariah got off the field, we all ran to congratulate her. You'd think she's just won a game for us, but it was actually just a case of 40 kids versus three adults, enjoying the freedom.

Of all the people trying to talk to Mariah, she walked over to Dylan and hugged him. He congratulated her again, while I stood admirably and watched them flirt. I can tell you for sure that they're not together, but other than that, I don't know where they stand.

"ARE YOU READY?"

The crowd hissed back a deafening, "YEAH!"

"I SAID ARE YOU READY?"

What, he wanted us to be louder? We tried. "YEAAH!"

"WELL THEN, WELCOME TO JEWEL WEEK!"

The stadium went mad. Opening ceremonies had started, but first we had to get through all of the pre-show hype. A five second countdown video appeared on the screens and as the crowd counted down, it kind of became real that we were finally here. After the countdown, an upbeat promo video began, but no one could here over the screaming. The screens showed colorful swirls, soccer balls, and enough excitement that I was convinced that they were going to make the audience explode.

The video ended, and a tall man with a white beard walked onto stage. At long last, everyone settled down. When he started talking, it became pretty obvious that just about the entire audience checked out, but it was now deathly silent.

Silent, except for an angry mumbling I heard next to me. I looked about four seats down to the right of me, and saw Erin and Michael mumbling to each other. They were whisper yelling, and maybe it would have been kind of funny, but most of our section was turned around, looking at them in concern, and I was no different. Just a few hours ago they were spontaneously kissing each other, and now they're fighting. Is this what America has become while I've been gone? Or is it just the whole world?

By the time a few more minutes of the pointless fighting had passed while we stared blankly at them or the various speakers on stage, Erin stood up, whacked Michael on the back of his head and muttered something particularly hateful at him. She walked across the aisle she was sitting in and went to sit next to Leah while Michael just sat there helplessly.

**A.N. If you read this long, thank you! I know it was a long chapter! Please give me some feedback! I'm sorry this took so long to get out here; xforeverlovex21 beta read it for me. (Thank you!) The next ones will come faster. Tell me what your favorite part or your favorite couple so far is!**

**Here's the couples, tell me a song that fits them!**

**Mason/ Kim:**

**Dylan/ Mariah:**

**Erin/ Michael:**

**More to come! Thanks again!**


	3. Day 3 Run In

It was a brand new day, and a very important one. Out first game! I couldn't wait. On the other hand though, I'd had just about enough Drama yesterday to last me a year. They were confusing me. Not that I didn't love it.

I couldn't decide if Dylan had a thing for Mariah, or if it was just generally friendly. I had a feeling that I just think they're cute together, so I was making things up. I was starting to sound like Amber.

I was still lying in bed, too lazy to even consider getting up, even though our alarms should be going off pretty soon.

My mind turned to Mason and Kim yesterday. I'd seen them on the bus yesterday morning, Kim asleep next to Mason. But before we went to opening ceremonies, we'd all gone to get ice cream. I thought back to the way they sat together.

_We had all ordered ice cream in a little ice cream shop in one of the buildings on campus. One by one, we went to sit down. Groups formed. I sat with a girl named Maddie that I didn't know too well, but she was still nice I guess. While we all talked like maniacs, excited for the show, but I looked over about 10 feet to my left as I licked my ice cream cone to see Mason sitting happily on the floor, leaning against a pole, Kim sitting next to him. They never left each other's side. It was just adorable. After they sat there for a few minutes though, one of his friends called him. Reluctantly, he looked kind of pitifully at Kim and stood up._

_What really got me though was the way Kim looked at him as he walked away. She tilted her head up a little bit, and just kind of stared wide eyed at him._

_And if I could put a name to the way she was looking at him, it was love._

I don't know why that moment replays in my head, but it does. I guess you just had to see her eyes at that moment.

A buzzing phone rudely snapped me out of my daydream. It was time to wake up.

When I got back from the bathroom, I found Bailey and Alana fighting. Not real fighting, just arguing over whose shirt was the one they'd found in the dresser. Both were convinced it was theirs. I rolled my eyes and ignored them. But as I thought about their pointless arguing, I remembered Erin and Michael's fight last night. I just hoped they were okay.

We all did our best to wake up, but really, we only barely had our eyes open as we trudged downstairs, still in our PJs to the field for breakfast.

As we lied in the grass, listening to some mediocre karaoke from a girl on stage and lying in our clusters, we started talking about our day. We were going to hang out this morning, try some of the fun things the campus had set up, and then we were going to watch a game for a team that lived a few miles away from theirs. And then, after dinner, the senior team had their very first game. Eric, one of the guys on the senior team with dirty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, said comically,

"Yeah, I'm going to like…" He flailed for a moment with a lack of words, as we laughed and finished; "Zoom?" He asked awkwardly. We all laughed, and we all echoed Zoom back at him.

Once the joke had gotten old, I turned back around, and started talking to Bailey again. And as my mind flashed back to Mason and Kim once again from last night, I turned to Bailey, realizing I'd seen her talk to Kim lots of times. I took a deep breath and asked. It was worth a shot.

"Bailey?" Her Head turned. "Are Mason and Kim together or not? I'm officially confused." A dismal expression appeared on her face as she said quietly,

"No." And she turned her head to someone else. I was dying to ask more, but as I opened my mouth, coach blew his whistle and made us all get up to get on with our day. _Well, that was only going to drive me bonkers for the rest of forever, _I thought sarcastically as I got up slowly.

Once we all got dressed, we started heading for a field where they had something fun set up, but we weren't totally sure what yet. When we got there though, we found more than we could have hoped for. There were five or six giant hamster balls for us to (Attempt) to run in. There was a large assortment of various bounce houses, and to top it off, a ginormous rock climbing wall. I was practically in heaven, feeling like a four year old, but not caring.

After two hours, we'd had our fill, and we started heading back to our dorms, where we had pizza waiting for us.

None of us really wanted to spend more time in our tiny dorms, so we all lied on the grass in front out building in one large, contented circle. The grass was fresh smelling and very green, just making me even happier. I looked up at the sky and really felt happy. I was surrounded by people that I could have a great time around, and it was a gorgeous day. It was a simple happy. I enjoyed my last calm moment of the day, since we had two games this afternoon and evening. One we were watching, the other we were playing. I was actually fairly excited to watch the game. I might actually know a few people on the team, since they only live a few minutes away from us. I couldn't wait.

Of course they _had _to play Call Me Maybe. It played in the background as the team was getting ready. Everyone on our team stood in the bleachers and danced like maniacs. It was kind of funny. Once the song finally finished, I saw a man carrying a cart around selling popcorn. Since the game hadn't started yet, I decided to go get some.

My popcorn looked delicious, and as I saw a few officials stepping on to the field, I decided I needed to hurry back to my seat.

The ground hurt. My leg throbbed, and I rubbed my forehead. I run into someone, but I was yet to figure out what had happened. Then, in front of my rather blurry vision, I saw a hand reaching out to help me up. I figured it was the person I'd run into, but as I looked up, I saw someone I had sincerely hoped I would never see again. Adam, my ex-boyfriend.

Reluctantly, I accepted his help to stand up, and tried to hide my face once I was up. It didn't work.

"Nina? Nina! Is that you?" He said, a little _too _friendly.

I sighed hesitantly. "Yes. And you're Adam Delaney." I said with a sharp, sarcastic attitude.

"You remember!"

"How could I forget?" I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, I gotta go play, but um… want to try and meet up later? To catch up?" He was acting sort of nervous, but he was still eager to talk, just like old times. Ugh.

"Not really." A short whistle blew at him, and he ran off. I marched back up to the bleachers, my leg still sore, but my day ruined for other reasons. Alana looked at me with wide eyes and asked anxiously,

"That wasn't who I think it was, was it?"

"Sadly, it was."

I tried not to let my run in with Adam ruin my day. We had been together two years ago, the summer before I left boarding school. I had admitted to him that I was leaving, and he got mad. We broke up a few weeks before I left. He didn't want me to leave, but it frustrated him deeply. I was already over it. Apparently, he's since gotten over it too, but I didn't want anything to do with him. He'd always been one of those people that carry drama everywhere with them, and once I met Fabian, I deleted Adam out of my life for good. I didn't need him. Like I said, he must have changed his mind again, and I didn't really feel like dealing with it.

We decided to get away from campus for dinner. We weren't doing anything special, just going to a fast food restaurant, but we had to walk.

It was about a half a mile walk there, so we had a good ten minutes to gab like nuts, which was always appreciated, it helped get my mind off Adam.

Mason and Kim were walking together, of course. She did end up talking to a few of her friends though. Kim is so sweet, and Mason is very… outgoing. It doesn't seem like they would fit, but every time I talk to Kim, I know that they do. It just makes sense.

Erin and Michael are walking near each other, but since last night, they seem a little bit distant. I had finally gotten a feeling that they were still together though, much to my relief.

In every group, there seems to be the one person that never runs out of things to say, and has everyone listening intently. In our case, it was Dylan. He was going on about anything and everything, but yet somehow, it was interesting. Someone needs to explain that to me, because I don't get it. Leah started walking next to him, and she started telling a story about something that had happened during the game. She was opening up to him, and he was eating it up. This had happened over and over, with other girls too, but Leah was something different to him, I could tell. And that sort of frustrated me, because I'd already gotten attached to the idea that Dylan and Mariah were adorable together.

As I was thinking about these things over and over, I found myself starting to get a head ache, so I dropped it, and walked into the restaurant, now deciding what I was getting for dinner.

It was finally sinking in for us. The loud, out of control team from an hour ago was completely gone. The junior team was waiting in the stands, cheering the senior team. Their first game was tomorrow morning. It was great to be standing with this team, but we were all nervous, anxiously awaiting the start of our very first game. We had all changed into our green uniforms with our cleats, head bands, and other various assortments of accessories. The other team entered the field, looking sharp in bright blue uniforms, and as they all started to warm up, you could feel the tension rise. The crowd enjoyed that, and we all did our best to ignore it. We were in game mode.

By the time half time came around, I was already exhausted. We had some tough competition, and we were down by three points. We needed to get back up there soon. I was not losing my first game at Jewel week. But then again, somebody had to.

Eventually, we won by one kick. It was incredible, there was such a feeling of victory, we all hugged and high fived. The junior team ran off of the stands to join us, and we all danced around, and as the crowd left, the other team pouted, and the sun went down, but we partied.

After 10 minutes or so, Coach Brian made us head back to our dorms to go to bed. Reluctantly, we gathered our things and ran contently back to our dorms for the night. Who knew what tomorrow would bring?

**A.N. Long, I know, but please tell me what you think! Everyone loves feedback! Anyone up for guessing my favorite couple in the story?**

**Please tell me of any songs you think of that fit the couples!**

**Dylan/Mariah: (What's going on here?)**

**Dylan/Leah: (I confide in you, but are we friends, or what?)**

**Mason/Kim: (Best friends that are afraid to take it further)**

**Michael/Erin: (Together, but fighting)**

**Nina/Adam: (Ex that she never wanted to see again)**


	4. AN Please read!

Hey everyone! I'm sorry that this is just an authors note.

this is a fun story to write, but it's getting hard, and no one seems to read it.

Does anyone actually care? I'm not the type to put stories up for "Ransom" but I'm going to.

I need three people to review this, (And preferably alert) this story for me to update it.

Should I continue it?


	5. Day 4 Big Day

**Here we go: As of the last chapter:**

**Nina/Adam: Gives you Hell. Good idea!**

**Michael/ Erin: The Story Of Us**

**Mason/Kim: I'm Only Me When I'm With You**

**Dylan:Leah/Mariah: I don't have a song for this…**

At 6:30 in the morning, going to a "Buddy breakfast" really didn't sound appealing, but after Natasha getting after me for 10 minutes, I eventually dragged myself out of bed and got dressed.

The event organizers got some idea that teams from one part of the country could meet up with a team from another part of the country and have breakfast. I didn't really want to go, but Coach signed us up, so I guess we were.

We were meeting a team from Kansas, and I couldn't decide how I felt about that. We sat at a row of tables with our meeting number taped to it, and waited for the other team while we took turns getting our breakfast.

They showed up after a few minutes, and we started talking like crazy, much to my surprise. The problems of our teams were forgotten, and I could see the tension for the junior team about their first game in an hour was wearing off.

We could have talked all day. I hated that I loved these guys. They were actually kinda fun. Eventually though, we had to leave. The junior's game was at 10:00.

We waited anxiously in the stands. It was nice to be up here, where there was less tension, but we were still a little bit nervous for the junior team. Coach Brian called Dylan to come help get everything organized for a minute, so he left where he was sitting with two of his friends to go help. I looked around, and I saw that Mariah had an empty seat next to her. This would be a great test. She had a huge smile on her face, we were all cheering on the referee who was getting the game started. Dylan came back up a few minutes later, and as he went to sit back down, he looked over, not at Mariah, but at Leah. I think Mariah and him are just too cute together, this wasn't fair. Leah had two other people sitting next to her, and instead of going back to his seat, or sitting with Mariah, he asked one of the girls that was sitting next to Leah if he could sit there. She agreed, and he sat down. Next to Leah. I was thrown off entirely by that. He doesn't like her, does he? It was all so confusing. It started to hurt right about then. The game started, but I had tuned out completely.

This was such a great team, something special for sure. I wanted to be part of the team, I had to stop being the new girl. And I _really_ had to stop thinking about everyone else, and actually talk to them. Instead of being at Jewel Week, I felt like I was watching a TV show. It wasn't right. But I was having fun, that was important, right? So I came to an agreement. Tomorrow, or tonight if I can, I was going to try to talk more, live out, maybe even say something funny stupid. Whatever it took to stand out a little bit. After all, I wasn't Nina here. I admitted that I was probably going to continue to follow what was going on with relationships, but I had to do more.

We walked away from the junior's game disappointed. The other team had beaten them. At least it was fair and square though. They didn't get creamed, but they didn't lose by a pathetically small portion either.

As we walk to lunch, I see Dylan walking with a few of his friends. I really wanted Dylan and Mariah together, but he was leaning more towards Leah every day. It was all staring to feel kind of pointless. We walked past field 3A, and I saw the guy with the popcorn cart by the field, and I flashed back to running into Adam the day before.

I needed to move on. There were 10,000 people here. I wasn't running into Adam again, not if I had my way. I tried to assure myself of that, but it just wasn't working.

Lunch was fine. Lunch I guess. There was certainly no four star cooking here, but nobody really cared, we were having too much fun. As I was halfway through my hot dog, Alana asked,

"Do we just have one game tonight?" Of course she wasn't talking to me.

She's never very ecstatic to talk to me, which kind of bugged me. She was asking Eric, from the senior team.

"Two! Against a team from O-hi-o." He said in a funny way. Naturally, I giggled along with Alana. More seriously, he told us that the other one was from Maine. Alana nodded.

"7:00 and 8:30." Coach Brian chipped in from behind us. "They've got us booked!"

We smiled, and he finished, "You guys ready to go?" And a few minutes later, we a filed off the field, ready to go. Only I didn't know where we were going.

I walked into a room almost the size of a gym, and all I saw was table after table with the same stuff covering it. Rolls upon rolls of duct tape.

They were every color imaginable. Each of the countless tables had one of fifty rolls of one color. There were some plain hats and robes and sheets of fabric and cardboard by the door. Coach Brian stopped a lady who was walking around with a badge on and said,

"Could you please explain to my teams what this is all about?"

"You mean you don't know?!" She said with a long, southern laugh. She took a deep breath and started to explain it.

"It's a tradition of ours here at Jewel week! We call it the 'Duct Tape Ball!' This is where everyone makes their insane costumes, and tomorrow, we're all going to be on field 6D, rocking out in our crazy costumes until midnight! If you need anything, I'm Tanya! I'll be around!"

I was sold. Our whole team cheered, and we ran off to get to work. As I walked away, I heard Tanya tell coach slyly, "And if you're interested… best friends tend to dress alike if you want to get a few stories straight." She paused and continued. "And so do future couples." She winked.

He smiled and said, "Thank you..." As he looked around. "I'll keep that in mind." She giggled went back to work.

The next three hours went really quickly for all of us. But, at 4:30, coach blew his whistle and called us all together. Reluctantly, we finished up, and got in a bunch.

"Can I have some pictures?" He grinned. Everyone put on their outfits and got in a line. Nobody had anything too fancy, duct tape was hard to work with, and we didn't get a whole lot of time. Mason and a few friends had a bright blue wizards hat, and an attempted robe. And, not to anyone's surprise, Kim had on a pink version of the same outfit. Only her outfit was complimented by a few classy accessories to match her friends, and she looked great.

"A fancy wizard!" I joked. And she laughed.

Dylan had made a duct tape wig. He was a blonde. He'd also covered his shirt with red tape, so he looked kind of funny. But although his friends had made some other various costumes, he's gotten most of them to make a wig. I loved them. He even got Mariah and Leah on board, even though they did their own things too. 'Tanya' was on a roll here.

"But I don't want to relax!" I whined as I lied on my bed 20 minutes later. Coach Brian had demanded that we all lie down for a half an hour since the senior team had two games tonight.

Pretty much everyone on both teams had a similar reaction, but nobody was about to sleep. Since we had like 12 rooms next to each other, everyone had just picked a room and hung out in groups. In our room, it was pretty much just Alana, Natasha, and Bailey and I, but one of Alana's friends was probably going to come by in a few minutes.

Next door was a whole different story though. I'd seen Leah, Dylan, Eric, Mariah, and several others heading in there. And of course, Mason and Kim. It tickled me pink every time anyone said their names together. I'd had enough relationship problems of my own, it was so sweet to see them together. Or not together…. I just wanted to be next door. I wanted to know what was going on. So much for being part of the team. Nope, I was just one of the kids. And it kind of sucked.

We went to go get dinner. Since it was a game night, we went off campus. Our group was obsessed with Chipotle for some reason, so we went there.

As I sat down next to Natasha, I looked at Mason and Kim, _still _glued to each other like they had been all week. I looked at Natasha and said,

"Are they cute together, or what?"

Her face perked up instantly. "Totally!"

"But they're not together, right?"

"I don't think so." She said whimsically.

"Oh."

"Why, what have you seen?" She asked eagerly.

"It's crazy Natasha. They're together _constantly. _ And you should have seen her a few nights ago. The way she looked at him. I sound crazy, but I know I'm not."

"I know exactly what you mean!" She got a little louder. I'd never seen her so excited. I had to shush her though; a few people started looking at us. We smiled at stopped talking as Alana sat down to join us.

"Nina!" Bailey screamed at me from down the hall. "We're going to be late! Hurry!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I yelled back as I hopped into my cleats frantically.

30 seconds later, I got my act together and started running down the stairs of the dorm to get to our game on time. But since the stairs were on the end of the building, I could hear what was going on right outside next to the building through the wall. I'd heard a few kids up really early playing around earlier on our way to the Buggy Breakfast, so I didn't think too much of it. But as I hurried down flight after flight, I realized I could hear yelling outside to me this time. And not good yelling. And the worst part, it was familiar yelling.

It was Michael and Erin.

I stopped dead in my tracks. There were some… _unfriendly _words being spoken. And they were angry for sure. I felt my heart pound. I felt like I was eavesdropping. But this was important. Alana called me from the front entrance of the building. I ran towards her, but as she ran towards the field, she didn't want to listen, rather remind me that we were going to be late.

As the field came into our sight, we all slowed down a little bit. And there was no sight of Michael or Erin.

"Alana!" I called her name again, grabbing her shoulder, I could tell that she was tense, but she responded friendly anyways.

"Yeah?"

"When I was on my way down…" I paused, still out of breath. "I heard fighting. It was Erin and Michael."

Her expression darkened. "Uh-oh."

As we entered the front gates, the audience cheered a little. Alana tried to catch up to Coach Brian, but never succeeded. Leah's phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, looked at the screen, and shouted to everyone,

"I'll be back in three minutes." And she ran off before anyone could object.

Coach led the junior team to the bleachers, and got the senior group in a bunch. He started counting heads, then hesitated and asked,

"Who are we missing?"

"Erin and Michael." I said quietly. Alana added,

"And Leah just ran off. I bet it was about them. They were fighting."

Coach sighed, looking irritated. Clearly choosing his words carefully, he said,

"Well, get them back. _Now _please. Our game starts in four minutes."

He turned around and motioned us to the field to warm up, a harsh look still present on his face.

Just as the referee was gathering our teams, Leah turned the corner, commanding us to wait up. Everyone froze, and as Leah slipped into her spot on the field, Erin came over the field, followed from a distance by Michael. Leah looked beat, Erin looked furious, and Michael looked like an abused puppy. It was pretty easy to tell who won that battle. I wanted to know what happened so badly, but the game had to go on.

We were being given a pep talk from Coach Brian after the first game. Well- it was a pep talk if that's a synonym for being yelled at.

We'd lost miserably. Michael and Erin had essentially just given each other nasty glares the whole game, and Leah had seemed distant and lost. And all of that had kind of set our whole team off.

So now we were being yelled at.

After one particularly snarly rant from Coach, he looked at his watch and commanded us to get to field 1E. On the double.

As we jogged halfway across the campus, I slowed down next to Leah for a minute. I subtly nodded towards Erin, you could tell she still looked ticked off.

Awkwardly, I asked, "Um… are they…." I ran out of words to say out loud, but in my mind I was thinking, _"Is it over?" _

With a frustrated look on her face, Leah said,

"Done? Yes." She sighed and caught up with Dylan, making my mind race for two reasons.

One. It just didn't feel real that Michael and Erin were over! It was so sad. They seemed like a good match, but I guess the break up was bound to happen sooner or later, based on the fighting I'd seen earlier in the week.

Two. Leah keeps hanging around Dylan. Why? I'd love to know, but I have my guesses. My mind is cluttered with pictures of Dylan and Mariah hanging around together. It's pretty cute if you ask me. But I don't want to change my story so quickly about that little love triangle there, so I'll move on I guess.

I was sore. My legs, my arms, my feet... and my brain. Everyone was seriously confusing me. But, as I lied on my bed, I looked at my watch. It was only 10:00. But I was tired, so I started getting in my PJs anyways. Alana and Natasha were talking about the notorious break up. Just like everyone else. They were discussing what actually happened, even though only a handful of people really knew.

For lack of better information, we eventually concluded that it had been the fight to end all fights, and they were done, Leah had stepped in to help, but didn't end up getting anywhere. Of course, we didn't know anything, but none of us were invited to the evening gab session next door, so guessing was the best we could do. I'd seen like 10 or 15 of them going in there. They would probably talk until midnight, and then complain that they were tired tomorrow morning. I still felt like I was missing something that was going on in the next room, but I didn't even feel like standing anymore, let alone wildly talking. So, I turned out the light and crawled into my bed.

And, next door, the conversation carried on late into the night, just like I suspected.

I only wish I'd known what it was about.

**Yeah this is going to get interesting. Please review! Is it going to be Dylan/Leah or Dylan/Mariah? If you have any questions, just let me know! I'm so sorry for such a long wait for this chapter.**

**Songs for each couple:**

**Erin/Michael:**

**Dylan:Mariah/Leah:**

**Mason/Kim:**


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